perfection

Recently heard someone talk about the piece of music “Ode to Joy”. Now that music is written perfectly, but if someone struggles when playing it, it doesn’t make the piece imperfect! One would keep practicing until he got it right. Then I began to think about man, who was made perfect in His image and likeness. Yes, we make mistakes but God’s Love neutralizes those mistakes when we learn from them and forgive ourselves, release them and continue forward. Our true self doesn’t become imperfect. My thought is this journey is about learning more and more about God and our relationship to Him and realizing only Spiritual growth is going on.

Romans 8:39 states “Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.” That includes mistakes we may make along the way.

This morning as I study Matthew 9:18 which reads “there came a certain ruler, and worshipped Him, saying, ‘My daughter is even now dead: but come and lay thy hand upon her, and she shall live.'”, there seemed to be no doubt in the ruler’s mind that this was not the end for his daughter. Nor did I sense this was a last resort for him, but was clearly positive the Christ could heal his daughter. The human scene would have been scary, as well, but his faith in Christ was stronger than the material evidences before him. So often, we are asked to put aside what we are seeing and rely upon the Truth that there can be no imperfection in perfection. God’s universe IS perfect and our every needs are filled in this moment. Today I will live more in the moment, watching thoughts of yesterday and tomorrow, giving them no power.

In Biblical times, oil was poured over the head of a sheep to keep out mites that would lay eggs and the sheep would beat it’s head against something hard to attempt to get peace. Haven’t we felt the same way when peace seems unreachable? Psalms 23:5 states “You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil”. The oil we receive from asking God and accepting it is inspiration to see the reality of our true being. There can never be imperfection in perfection and if we are made in the image and likeness of God as the first chapter of Genesis says, we are spiritually perfect. We need to start from perfection rather than look for perfection. God is perfect!

As we work to stay in gratitude and humility, our heart can hear God more clearly than when we are buried in pride and fear. Today I choose gratitude and humility!

“Being” says to me that we are already complete and should always work out from Spiritual perfection. That’s where humility and gratitude are important because with that mind set, Truth can be readily attained and understood. “Becoming” always denotes a future time, here later or hereafter. That to me seems like an unreachable goal. There can be no imperfection in perfection and when we start with that concept, we can also realize there is never a limitation of Good or God in omniscience, omnipresence and omnipotence which God is. My search is never without but within. Genesis 1:27 states “So God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them.” Doesn’t that say spiritually perfect if we are created in His image?

This morning I looked up the old English definition of the word “Fear” and it meant “respect and reverence” when talking about God. Wouldn’t it stand to reason that all of the “Fear Not’s” would mean just that; not to respect anything ungodlike whether it is sickness, sin or disease? When we fear God and nothing else, there is perfection and harmony and there can be no imperfection in perfection.

Galatians 5:22-23 states, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.” That is achieved only by “Fearing God” and none other.

There is no such thing as “human perfection”, no matter how hard we strive. We are spiritually perfect since we were born in the image and likeness of God! Our attempts to be perfect humanly lead us to break the commandment in Exodus. Our perfection is not in other people or human achievements. Exodus 20:3 reads, “You shall have no other gods before me.”

As I was praying with Psalms 119:18 this morning, it reads “Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law.” Once again, I was reminded that I need not ask God to “fix” something that I may think is broken, but rather, to see through God’s (Love’s) eyes. When we repent (change the way we are thinking}, and humbly ask what God sees in any situation, we will always be surprised when we release limited human viewing. There the perfection, solution and harmony always are.